**Author details**

120 New Approaches to the Study of Marine Mammals

accidently lost overboard.

number of organisms and threatening their populations.

throughout the food chain (likely caused by bioaccumulation).

exhibit impacts by marine pollution sooner than humans will.

and/or streams, coastal erosion, or watercraft of any sort. We have even found the most remote places on earth to be impacted. However, the true extent and the impacts of our wastes are poorly understood. One reason for this lack of understanding is due to the difficulties the ocean environment poses. Many places are geographically difficult to access; these areas require a large financial, technical, personnel and personal burden to study. In the rare cases that these obstacles are overcome, there remain the additional challenges of contending with environmental challenges (e.g. weather) and the simple fact that marine life is difficult to see, and can only be observed for a short period of time. Finally, the vast majority of marine animals cannot be used in laboratory experiments, and we do not currently have a useful model species to use in their place. Yet, despite these difficulties there are ways to study the impacts of pollution on marine life without sacrificing a large

Thus, marine mammals provide the best model for studying marine pollution. They are found near-shore (e.g. sea otters, seals, sea lions, sirenians, and some cetaceans) and offshore (e.g. most cetaceans, some seals, and some sea lions), and their diets range the entirety of the food chain from plankton and krill to giant squid and other marine mammals. A handful of marine mammals have cosmopolitan or near-cosmopolitan distribution, which enables for a more controlled comparison of marine pollution in different areas; these include sperm whales, bottlenose dolphins, orcas, and humpback whales. All marine mammals attract ecotourism, thus there are many watercraft that seek them out for observation. Along with these watercraft come the exhaust from burning fossil fuels, noise pollution that can interfere with the animals' communication and any trash that may be

The health of all marine mammals depends on clean air and water; they all live in the water exclusively or near-exclusively, and since they are mammals they need air to breathe. Not all are directly affected by pollution in the sediment, but may still be indirectly affected through their prey. Marine mammal prey is highly varied from species to species. Studying a variety of them, we can determine if the effect of pollution is specific to animals that are higher on the food chain (likely caused by biomagnification), or if the effect is conserved

Furthermore, marine mammals are suitable organisms to study because they capture the attention and support of the mass media and general public. These animals are one of the major bases for marine ecotourism because of their charismatic behaviors and their similarities with humans; they breathe air, are warm-blooded, nurse their young, and communicate with songs and chatter. Their similarities also enable them to be studied as a model species for humans [8]. The ocean is a finite resource, and has a finite capacity for pollution intake. Marine mammals can serve as a model species for humans to demonstrate how we will be affected by marine pollution in the future if it is not monitored and regulated better. They spend either all or nearly all their lives in the ocean, and they will Catherine F. Wise, John Pierce Wise, Jr., Sandra S. Wise and John Pierce Wise, Sr *Wise Laboratory of Environmental and Genetic Toxicology, Maine Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, University of Southern Maine, Portland Maine, USA* 
